There is no question that on-line marketing continues to grow in importance to marketers. . In 2009, Forrester Research estimated $25.9 billion was allocated to on-line marketing in the U.S. And this is expected to increase to $60 billion or 21% of total marketing budgets by 2014! Of this, approximately $1.9 billion was spent on interactive games and sweepstakes. This segment of on-line marketing is expected to continue to increase as well.
Does this suggest that your promotional strategy needs to be solely focused on reaching clients through the web?
Not really as even with the growth of online marketing, almost 80% of budgets are expected to be spent off-line.
On-site promotional activity can still play a major role in your promotional strategy. For unlike the on-line world, there is less direct competition for your promotion in your retail store, special event or trade show.
For the week of March 20 to the 26th, 1326 NEW on-line sweepstakes games were listed on Online-Sweepstakes.com. I suspect this is only a fraction of all the new on-line contests, sweespstakes, instant win games, or discount promotions that were launched during the same time period.
A well executed on-site promotion has immediacy, doesn't require any special technology and can generate real excitement that non-winners can participate in. And it offers the opportunity to encourage repeat visits by employees.
But it doesn't mean chosing one promotional format for all programs. We know on-line promotions also offer some great advantages. Distribution can occur anytime and be supported by participants to virally increase reach. With the use of video and graphics, contests and games can become highly interactive. There are some truly awesome games that generate high participation rates.
So what to do?
It really goes back to the basics - who is the target for the promotion, what are the best channels to reach them, and how can you make the promotion sticky?
We see that there are tremendous opportunities for both on-site and on-line promotions. And increasingly there is the opportunity to utilize both in the goal of improving the stickiness of your promotions.
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Brilliant combination of video and online marketing
Imagine your customers and prospects wanting to watch your promotional video or commercial.
Impossible?
Not with the absolute brilliant application built by a UK company - e-ScratchCard. The results being achieved are incredible. Check out some of the on-line demos and let me know what you think.
Stay tuned. This product will soon be available in Canada via our company.
Talk about sticky!
Monday, March 15, 2010
Does this look familiar?
It didn't take long to find an example of a promotion that was well intentioned but likely proved to be expensive but not very effective.
As the photo indicates, the after market supplier is trying to attract traffic to their display and likely build a database of contacts. However, it wasn't clear who their target audience is or why someone should stop other than for the chance to win free gas or a car.
The concept is simple enough - use the promotion to gain attention and draw attendees in to complete an entry form. But this approach has some significant pitfalls.
Due to privacy rules, an opt in or opt out provision is needed to gain permission to contact the entrants. It is likely few of the entrants will choose to be contacted. Even worse, is the low probability the company will be remembered after the entry form was deposited. There was nothing to remind the attendee and lots of competition as there were several opportunities for enter to win contests.
So what has this company accomplished? They have spent a considerable amount of time and money renting the space, arranging and paying for the prizing, and incurred costs for manning the booth. And the results? My bet is they wouldn't recoup direct costs nor have made an impression of most attendees.
What could they have done?
First step is to identify the target audience they are trying to reach and clear objective on what will make participation at this show worthwhile. It wasn't at all clear to whom the display was targeted at.
Next ensure visitors to the booth become engaged and actually remember whose booth it they are stopping at. Anyone stopping needs to be engaged beyond completing a entry form.
Physical interaction is a great way to engage trade show attendees and stimulate memory. A simple game - golf putting, magnet darts, ball in the hoop is a good way to build interactivity.
I would also include a prize of some kind related to the company for everyone who participates. Strangely enough promotional magnets still seem to work but it could be any prize.
If being noticed and remembered is the goal, handing out a game card that not only requires the player to do something (pull, scratch, enter), but provides a reminder of who the sponsor is and contact information.
Stickiness is created when you can create interactivity and have your prospect leave with something in their hand. Because you know most of your competitors won't.
Friday, March 12, 2010
What are "Sticky" Promotions
My company recently acquired the distribution rights for a new product called snapNwin™. It is a unique and innovative approach to delivering high impact, memorable consumer marketing promotions.
As we spoke to more and more potential clients about the product and possible uses, it became obvious many marketers incorporate marketing promotions as part of the marketing mix but often didn't understand how to create or deliver a killer promotion. Too often, promotions are poorly conceived, have no clear objectives and the results can't be measured. The greater sin we encounter is false economy - if it can be done cheaply enough, any results are good.
To help our clients understand both the strategic value of promotions and the tactical requirements, I started searching for compelling data and insights on how to build really effective promotions, regardless of their size or budget. Through this process, we concluded that one of the key elements that is critical is the "stickiness" of a promotion.
The concept of "stickiness" is not new. Technology sales people understand the concept very well - the more uses a product has, the more it becomes part of daily routine, and the more difficult it is to give up using a product, the stickier it becomes. It ensures customer churn is reduced and revenue opportunities are increased.
In the context of marketing promotions, the concept is significantly different. The purpose of most marketing promotions - instant win contests, games, discount offers, chances to win, etc. is to drive immediate response - purchase, enter to win, share contact information, drive specific product sales, new product introductions or support brand initiatives. If sales go up, the promotion is considered a success. If they don't change, the marketing folks talk about inadequate budgets, need for more time, poor staff support or other "reasons" the promotion didn't work.
But in our view, promotions need to do more than drive short term sales. They need to leave a strong impression on the customer so they remember who ran the promotion, why they should come back (or try for the first time), or what value the retailer or service company offers. Even better, they actually remember who ran the promotion! In other words, promotions stick to a consumer because it is memorable, a key message is remembered, and it reinforces the brand of the company. If they don't, it is much easier and often cheaper to simply discount the product.
Here are a couple of examples to help underscore the concept of sticky promotions. Locally there is a chain of liquor stores that run weekly contests for different types of prizes - bikes, coolers, weekend getaways. Often there are two or three being run at the same time sponsored by breweries or liquor brands. You simply fill out a entry form and drop it in a box while exiting the store, Sometimes there is signage but often it is difficult to see.
I must assume there is a purpose for running these,however, it truly does escape me what the objectives are. I rarely see anyone complete an entry and I guarantee that within 5 minutes of leaving the store, no one can recollect who sponsored the promotion.
While not an elaborate or expensive promotion, why bother? Why tie up staff time to setup these promotions or spend marketing budget to fund them?
On the other end of the scale is an example of a promotion that really understood who was being targeted, what was important to the customer and created an impression lasting beyond the receipt of a game card.
Canadian Tire is an icon in Canadian retailing. As a sponsor of Nascar racing, they determined it was a good venue to appeal to spectators to drive enrollment into their e-flyer program. They handed out high quality game cards at several Nascar events (actually snapNwin™ cards I must confess) which not only gained the attention of spectators, provided them a keepsake for future reference and drove responses to the Canadian Tire website.
A typical promotion at Nascar generally produces response rates in the 8% range. The Canadian Tire promotion doubled this. To see what the program looked like, click here.
We will dig deeper into the factors affecting stickiness and continue to highlight examples (good and bad) of promotions that display these. And where appropriate, we'll discuss some tools or approaches that will help you create sticky promotions. I promise they will not just be products or services CF Marketing offers!
As we spoke to more and more potential clients about the product and possible uses, it became obvious many marketers incorporate marketing promotions as part of the marketing mix but often didn't understand how to create or deliver a killer promotion. Too often, promotions are poorly conceived, have no clear objectives and the results can't be measured. The greater sin we encounter is false economy - if it can be done cheaply enough, any results are good.
To help our clients understand both the strategic value of promotions and the tactical requirements, I started searching for compelling data and insights on how to build really effective promotions, regardless of their size or budget. Through this process, we concluded that one of the key elements that is critical is the "stickiness" of a promotion.
The concept of "stickiness" is not new. Technology sales people understand the concept very well - the more uses a product has, the more it becomes part of daily routine, and the more difficult it is to give up using a product, the stickier it becomes. It ensures customer churn is reduced and revenue opportunities are increased.
In the context of marketing promotions, the concept is significantly different. The purpose of most marketing promotions - instant win contests, games, discount offers, chances to win, etc. is to drive immediate response - purchase, enter to win, share contact information, drive specific product sales, new product introductions or support brand initiatives. If sales go up, the promotion is considered a success. If they don't change, the marketing folks talk about inadequate budgets, need for more time, poor staff support or other "reasons" the promotion didn't work.
But in our view, promotions need to do more than drive short term sales. They need to leave a strong impression on the customer so they remember who ran the promotion, why they should come back (or try for the first time), or what value the retailer or service company offers. Even better, they actually remember who ran the promotion! In other words, promotions stick to a consumer because it is memorable, a key message is remembered, and it reinforces the brand of the company. If they don't, it is much easier and often cheaper to simply discount the product.
Here are a couple of examples to help underscore the concept of sticky promotions. Locally there is a chain of liquor stores that run weekly contests for different types of prizes - bikes, coolers, weekend getaways. Often there are two or three being run at the same time sponsored by breweries or liquor brands. You simply fill out a entry form and drop it in a box while exiting the store, Sometimes there is signage but often it is difficult to see.
I must assume there is a purpose for running these,however, it truly does escape me what the objectives are. I rarely see anyone complete an entry and I guarantee that within 5 minutes of leaving the store, no one can recollect who sponsored the promotion.
While not an elaborate or expensive promotion, why bother? Why tie up staff time to setup these promotions or spend marketing budget to fund them?
On the other end of the scale is an example of a promotion that really understood who was being targeted, what was important to the customer and created an impression lasting beyond the receipt of a game card.
Canadian Tire is an icon in Canadian retailing. As a sponsor of Nascar racing, they determined it was a good venue to appeal to spectators to drive enrollment into their e-flyer program. They handed out high quality game cards at several Nascar events (actually snapNwin™ cards I must confess) which not only gained the attention of spectators, provided them a keepsake for future reference and drove responses to the Canadian Tire website.
A typical promotion at Nascar generally produces response rates in the 8% range. The Canadian Tire promotion doubled this. To see what the program looked like, click here.
We will dig deeper into the factors affecting stickiness and continue to highlight examples (good and bad) of promotions that display these. And where appropriate, we'll discuss some tools or approaches that will help you create sticky promotions. I promise they will not just be products or services CF Marketing offers!
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